Automated automobile parking

ABSTRACT

This invention defines a facility that accepts and mechanically parks automobiles. The facility is a group of adjacent bays; each bay is one car wide, has a ground floor that provides access and egress to entrance and delivery portals, and has multiple levels of storage above (or below) the ground floor. Each storage level of each bay has four storage stalls, two longitudinally forward of and two longitudinally behind a central elevator shaft. Vehicles are stored on pallets; there is a pallet for every storage stall. A single-wide or multiple-wide elevator operates within the elevator shaft of each bay or group of bays. The elevators are double-deck; the upper deck is a temporary storage stall, and the lower deck is the basic transport floor. Horizontal travel of pallets is accomplished by gearmotor-driven pinions in all stalls that mesh with toothed racks on the undersides of the pallets.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/508,200, filed Oct. 2, 2003. That document is incorporated in its entirety in this application. Where there is ambiguity or inconsistency with this application, the contents of this application supercede those of the provisional patent application.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING COMPACT DISK APPENDIX

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Self-park garages, where one drives up (or down) ramps to various storage floors and then self-parks one's vehicle, are common at airports, major shopping malls, and in the periphery of dense urban areas. Due to the driveways and ramps, such garages are relatively large, often 2 or more acres (a hectare) in size. There appears to be a need for vehicle parking in dense central areas where a relatively small structure (perhaps 100-ft by 100-ft by 60 or 80 ft high (30×30 meters×20 to 25 meters high)) might store 300 to 400 vehicles. This invention is conceived to be a practical and pragmatic solution to this need.

Most U.S. patents dealing with mechanized parking garages for automobiles are in USPTO Class 414, subclasses 227 through 264. The class and its subclasses cover material handling, of which moving and parking automobiles well fits. Over 200 U.S. patents and an even greater number of international patents have been awarded within this class. Very few of the patent concepts have been the basis for constructed facilities, and even fewer of these have had more than one unit built according to their teaching. The major deterrents to acceptance are cost, mechanism complexity, and perceived slowness of operation. This invention does not totally overcome these negatives, but is a significant step towards lessened cost, a simpler mechanism, timeliness in serving the customer, and greater efficiency in land use—in the ground area required per car stored.

All mechanized parking systems have two things in common: lift devices (usually elevators) to move vehicles vertically to storage levels, and a horizontal transport methodology to move the vehicles from the lift device into storage, and reverse the operation when the vehicle is called for. The majority of designs for mechanized parking use pallets upon which the vehicle is first parked, and then it is the pallet with vehicle that is elevated and horizontally transported.

The elevator is the most costly single component of mechanized garages; for economy the elevator cost should be spread over a large number of storage stalls. Past practice and modeling analysis indicates a reasonable compromise between storage stalls served and timeliness of service is 40 to 60 storage stalls per elevator.

There are numerous concepts for horizontally moving the vehicle (or vehicle on its pallet) from the elevator into and out of storage. When all storage stalls are directly adjacent to the elevator, the horizontal transport mechanism can be and usually is a part of the elevator. When some storage stalls are not directly adjacent and accessible to the elevator, the horizontal transport mechanism is typically a component of the storage stalls. This is necessary because there must be some way to move in-the-way pallets or vehicles on pallets out of the way so the desired pallet can be accessed to the elevator. This shifting of vehicles is called “puzzle parking”, named after the hand-held toy where markers are moved around a matrix that has one empty space in it to get a particular marker into a particular place.

This invention is one approach to meeting the above-noted constraints, and it does it differently than other patented designs. U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,285 teaches a double-deck elevator to accomplish the puzzle parking movement of pallets stored in stalls not adjacent to the elevator. But that patent requires corner pallets (in a 3×3 storage matrix) to be moved both longitudinally and transversely, complicating the horizontal transport mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,026 addresses indirect storage stall access by one-directional horizontal transport, but requires an elevator within an elevator (mother and daughter units) to accomplish the puzzle parking. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,539 is designed around three storage stalls linearly outward from both ends of the elevator shaft, and specifies three separate elevators working within the one elevator shaft. U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,634 addresses the accessing of outboard pallets by having a turntable-mounted double-wide elevator. An inboard pallet is moved onto the elevator, the turntable is rotated 180 degrees, and then the outboard pallet can be accessed. A similar concept, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,506, retrieves outboard pallets by a straddle carrier that does a “leapfrog” carrying of vehicles in outboard stalls. In all of these designs, horizontal transport of the pallets is done by powered rollers in the storage stalls, is done by undefined hydraulic mechanisms, or the elevator has a carriage that extends out to lift the pallet back to the elevator.

The use of the rack and pinion for horizontal transport is suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,185; it describes a circular tower parking facility where the elevator has a rack and pinion mechanism to push or retrieve palletized vehicles to or from storage; all stalls are directly adjacent to the elevator. The rack and pinion mechanism is a part of the elevator. U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,488 shows a rack and pinion mechanism for the lateral transport of palletized vehicles; again the mechanism is a part of the elevator, not the pallets or the storage stalls. The invention of this presentation is unique; it uses a toothed rack on the pallet, driven by powered pinions within the storage stalls, to accomplish the horizontal transfer.

Similarly unique to this invention is the concept of having multiple-wide elevators in garages that are less than high-rise garages. That is, for ten or more storage levels, with four storage stalls per storage level, a single-wide elevator is probably appropriate. For a garage of six to nine storage levels, use of a double-wide elevator apportions the elevator cost into a reasonable number of storage stalls, and a four- or five-storage level garage would well be served by a triple-wide elevator.

A number of patented designs specify the ground floor as the entrance and exit area. U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,753 calls for the driver to place the vehicle on a pallet that is then moved on a rail line to the lifting device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,642 has the driver park on a turntable from where the car is mechanically put onto the lift mechanism. The invention of this present patent is unique in that there is an entrance and exit portal for every bay of the facility. A driver enters the building on the ground floor via the entrance driveway under the outboard row of storage stalls, and turns into the first available empty entrance portal. A facility with ten elevators, with even a 3-minute parking cycle time (including parking and exiting the car) will have a free stall every 20 seconds. Similarly, with a 3-minute total retrieval time, the second of two customers having vehicles in the same bay would have only a 3-minute wait for vehicle retrieval. This is almost always less time than drivers need to go to their stored cars and drive them to the exit.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The total facility is made up of adjacent bays, each bay being one car wide, five car-lengths long, and of a height composed of a ground floor for entrance and exit, and multiple levels of storage. The ground floor has an entrance driveway running under the outboard storage stalls of the floors above, and an exit driveway running under the outboard storage stalls on the opposite side of the building. The bay length is divided by a central elevator shaft setting between two storage stalls forward of and two storage stall rearward of the elevator shaft on all storage levels. On the ground floor, cars drive along the entrance driveway and turn into an entrance portal under the inboard storage stalls above, where a pallet awaits the parking. Cars are parked on pallets; there is a pallet for every storage stall, and the pallets, whether empty or with a vehicle on them, are stored in the storage stalls.

After a driver parks and locks his/her vehicle and signals his/her safe retreat, the automated mechanism takes over to convey the pallet and vehicle from the entrance portal onto the lower deck of the elevator, raise pallet and vehicle to the storage level from where the pallet had been taken, and longitudinally move the pallet and vehicle into the storage stall of that level. If the pallet and vehicle is to be stored in an outboard stall, the pallet or pallet and vehicle still in that forward or rearward half of the storage level has to be run onto the top level of the elevator so the newly-arrived pallet and vehicle can be delivered to the outboard stall. The pallet or pallet and vehicle on the upper deck of the elevator can then be returned to that storage level. The whole procedure is reversed when the vehicle driver calls for his/her car.

The horizontal transport system of this invention is power units imbedded in all storage stalls, the entrance and exit stalls, and in both decks of the elevators. The power units are gearmotor-driven pinions that mesh with toothed racks on the undersides of all pallets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an annotated perspective view of the automated automobile parking facility of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the structural framing of both the ground floor and a typical storage floor; the pallets that would normally cover the storage floor are not shown.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of single-wide, double-wide, and triple-wide elevator cages.

FIG. 4 is a cut-away isometric drawing of the pallet upon which vehicles will be parked and stored.

FIG. 5 suggests the gearmotor with pinion that will drive the pallet through meshing of the pinion and teeth of the pallet rack. The spring mounting to prevent pinion or rack tooth damage is shown.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

There are three components of the invention: structural, mechanical, and control. The structure is suggested in FIGS. 1 and 2. The preferred embodiment is for the structure to be fabricated of steel columns, beams, and rails.

The mechanical component includes the elevator, the pallets, and the pallet horizontal driving mechanism, FIGS. 3, 4, and 5. The elevator vertical rail system and elevator counterweight fit between the columns on the opposite sides of the elevator gallery. Non-centered loading of a double-wide or triple-wide elevator is not a problem; the vertical rail system of standard freight-type elevators (as this surely is) is capable of handling non-centric loading.

The pallet design (FIG. 4) includes wheels to run in the horizontal rail system of the elevators, entrance and exit portals, and storage stalls. The wheeled bogies of the wheel locations provides for weight acceptance and smooth passage between elevator and storage stalls. The wheel bogies and pallet strengthening bar is under the typical wheel width of the cars that will be parked The pallet design also includes the toothed rack on the underside that meshes with gearmotor-driven pinions imbedded within the storage stalls, elevator decks, and entrance and exit portals. Pallet and entrance-and-exit portal curb configuration can be designed together so there is little likelihood of a driver turning his/her ankle in leaving and entering his/her vehicle.

The gearmotor-driven pinion mechanisms are imbedded in the rail system as shown in FIG. 5. The gearmotor drive mechanism is spring mounted because there is no certainty of exact meshing of pinion teeth and rack teeth when a pallet is passed to or from the elevator to a storage stall or entrance or exit portal, or between inboard and outboard storage stalls. If they do not mesh, the receiving gearmotor will be forced down so its pinion teeth, not meshing with the rack teeth, will ride on the tops of the rack teeth. When the delivering pinion loses contact with the last tooth of the rack, the pallet will momentarily stop, at which time the receiving pinion teeth will continue rotating and rise into the rack tooth dedendum (bottom).

The control component of an automated automobile parking facility is not specifically described, because it is an assembly of available and conventional micro-processor sub-systems. When a car is parked on a pallet, it must be parked correctly so no part of the car will be damaged as the vehicle is moved into and out of storage. Electric-eye controllers are available that will inform the driver that he/she has improperly parked the car, and prevent mechanism operation until the vehicle is properly parked. When the driver signals his/her safe retreat from the car on the pallet, sequence controllers will make the pallet move onto and off the elevator, move the elevator to the proper level, and start and stop the gearmotor drivers to put the pallet into and out of storage. Parking control hardware and software is similarly available to keep track of where the vehicle is stored, and develop the charge and payment acceptance details in returning a vehicle to its driver. 

1) An improved system of mechanically accepting, storing and returning automobiles to their drivers; the system is housed in a facility where drivers park their vehicles on pallets in a ground floor access area; the palletized vehicles are longitudinally moved onto a longitudinally-oriented elevator and lifted to an available storage level and longitudinally moved into storage until the driver calls for his/her vehicle, at which time the procedure is reversed and the car delivered back to the driver. 2) The building of claim 1 is composed of side-by-side bays, each bay being one car wide, five car-lengths long, and of a height that includes a ground floor access and multiple levels of storage above or below the ground floor; the five car-length bay length consists of a central elevator gallery and on the storage levels, two storage stalls forward of and two storage stalls rearward of the elevator shaft of each bay; the storage stalls of each level of each bay are referred to as inboard (adjacent to the elevator shaft) and outboard (not adjacent to the elevator shaft). 3) The ground access floor of the building of claim 1 has access and exit driveways located inside the structure under the outboard storage stalls, along with entrance portals into which drivers place their vehicles and exit portals from where drivers retrieve their vehicles; these entrance and exit portals are under the inboard storage stalls described in claim 2 and adjacent to the elevator shaft. 4) Elevators operate in the elevator gallery of the building of claim 1; the elevators are double-deck in design with the lower deck being the basic vertical transport deck and the upper deck being a temporary storage deck. 5) The elevators of claim 4 may be single-wide, double-wide, or triple-wide, based on a pre-defined elevator-to-storage stall ratio that addresses both apportioning the cost of the elevator mechanism and timeliness of serving the customers who will use the parking facility; double-wide or triple-wide elevators serve adjacent bays which are independent in construction but are operated as a single entity. 6) The elevator decks, the entrance and exit portals, and all the storage stalls of the building of claim 1 are equipped with longitudinally-running rails 7) Every pallet of the facility of claim 1 is equipped with wheels on its underside and these wheels run in or on the rails of claim 6; the underside of every pallet is also equipped with a longitudinal toothed rack that is the receiver of power that makes the pallet move when such is called for 8) Every storage stall, every entrance portal, every exit portal, and both decks of every elevator is equipped with an imbedded power unit between the rails as described in claim 6; the power unit is a gearmotor-driven pinion; the teeth of the pinion mesh with the toothed rack of the pallets of claim 7 9) The power units of claim 8 are spring-mounted to prevent tooth damage of the pinion teeth or rack teeth; when the pinions of a delivering and a receiving gearmotor driver are not in synchronization, the receiving driving unit will depress and the teeth of the pinion gear will ride on the tooth tops of the pallet rack; when the delivering gearmotor pinion loses tooth contact at the end of the pallet rack and stops pushing it along, the receiving gearmotor pinion's continuing rotation will cause its teeth to advance and its teeth will rise into the dedendum of the rack teeth, at which time the pallet will again be powered and advance. 10) The parking facility of claim I allows cars to be parked in both the inboard (directly accessible to the elevator) storage stalls, and in the outboard or indirectly-accessible storage stalls; storage or retrieval of pallets in the outboard storage stalls is accomplished by temporarily moving the inboard-stored pallet onto the upper deck of the elevator serving that bay, retrieving the outboard pallet onto the elevator's lower deck, and then replacing the temporarily-stored pallet in the elevator's upper deck back to the storage level from which it was temporarily taken. 11) The operation of the facility as described in claim 1 is based on available computer-related software that is available to measure correct car placement in parking, safe retreat of the driver and his/her passengers, actuate the horizontal and vertical mechanisms that puts a car in storage and arranges for its return, and attends to the charging of the fee for the parking; said computer logic sequencing is not a part of this patent. 